The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-11-18
OPEN THE BLOCKS.
THE HERALD,
Salt Lake City, Utah.

There is not another city IN America,
if there is one in the world, containing
no more people than reside here, which
spreads over so much territory as Salt
Lake covers. There are probably thirty
square miles embraced within the in
habited portion of the corporation.
One thousand persons to the square
mile do not make very dense popula-
ton. Whole kingdoms in other parts
of the earth are as thickly peOpled as
Salt LAKE City. 1t is because of this
scattered condition of ths population
that 30 few of the people can obtain the
benefits of improvements and the or
binary municipal advantages. Police
patrol is necessarily restricted to q
limited quarter of the city, and its in
fuence or protection extends to COM
parati7ely few of the inhabitants. 1t is
the same as to other things. The gas
service is confined to the more populouS
districts, because no gas company could
afford to extend the mains for the
few patrons beyond the central
region. 1t has been demonstrated that
the interest on the money invested IN
block of main pipe would exceed the
total revenue from the gas consumed
on pretty nearly every block beyond the
present terminus of main. The water
mains cannot be extended because the
consumers are 50 few in number; it
amounts to reckless extravaganza to
invest several hundred or perhaps
thousand dollars in stringing a main
along block where there are only two
or three families who will put in the
service at cost of $40 or SIS year
each. When the city comes to lay sew
ers, the local tax will be found to be ex-
cessively burdensome, and some own
ers of large, unoccupied lots will with
difficulty pay their assessments. Prop
erty-owners would simply go wild if
any body were to seriously suggest the
proprlety of paving any other than
Main Street. While the few people in
Salt Lake are spread over such vast
area of country, every improvement
will be burdensome, gas, water and
sewers will be expensive, and the
great majority of the community
cannot possibly obtain the conVeniences
and advantages which are supposed to |
be incidental to residence in the city. |
There are the best of reasons for be-
lieying that the population of Salt Lake
will be doubled within two years, and !
that instead of town of 10000 there
will be a city of 90 600 inhabitants. Will
it be wise to keep this increase within
the bounds of the present inhabited
district? or should it be sent to "addi- |
tions," extensions" ETC.? If there |
were 1000 people living in the present |
settled" part of the city, it would be |
an easy matter to extend the water and |
gas mains, and the sewer tax would |
press with just half the weight with |
which it would bear day. People |
who are now deprived of water, gas,
police patrol, and so on, because of
Their isolation, could then have those |
The city covers enough territory; it |
spreads over too much, considering the |
number of inhabitants. Instead of e1-
tending it an effort should be |
made TO keep the town within |
it's present occupied borders. One
way, and the easiest and best |
is to open the immense blocks by !
running streets through them, and thus
bringing into use fully one-third more
land. A north and south street would |
give eighty rods OF street frontage to q
block and bring eighty rods of idle:
worthless surface into use. 1t would
almost double the inhabitants and oc-
cupants OF block, and bring modern
and improvements to all
whereas now none csn have them. In
many cases also the opening of these
squares would do away with disease
breeding nuisances, as the interior of |
the block is now used for the storage
Of filth. Ii the City Council has the
authority to make this improvement
which will prove so advantageous to
the municipality and to individuals, it
should undertake the work on some of
the central blocks before there are
costly buildings to be paid for and torn
down; if it has not the authority, the
should be petitioned to
confer it